Terms of Service

Burning Man ePlaya Terms of Service Agreement

Welcome to the ePlaya, an online community primarily comprised of attendees of the Burning Man arts and community event and operated by Burning Man Project ("Burning Man"). By using the ePlaya (also referred to herein as the “Service”), you agree to the following Terms of Service ("Agreement"). To become an ePlaya member ("Member"), indicate your acceptance of these Terms of Service at registration.

This Agreement sets out the legally binding terms of your use of the ePlaya and your membership in the Service and may be modified by Burning Man at any time and without prior notice, such modifications to be effective upon posting by Burning Man. You can always review the most current version of the Terms of Service here. This Agreement includes Burning Man's acceptable use policy for content posted on the ePlaya, Burning Man's Privacy Policy, and any notices regarding the ePlaya.

Eligibility. You must be thirteen or over to register as an ePlaya member. Membership in the Service is void where prohibited. By using the ePlaya, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority, and capacity to enter into this Agreement and you agree to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Membership Registration. In consideration of your use of the Service, you agree to: (a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service's registration form; and (b) maintain and promptly update the registration data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or Burning Man has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Burning Man has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof).

Member Account, Password and Security. You will receive a password and account designation upon completing the Service's registration process. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. You agree to (a) immediately notify Burning Man of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security, and (b) ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session. Burning Man cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this Section.

Term. This Agreement will remain in full force and effect while you use the ePlaya and/or are a Member. You may terminate your membership at any time, for any reason by contacting the ePlaya administrators.

Commercial Use. The ePlaya is intended for the personal use of individual Members. Organizations, companies, and/or businesses may only use designated sections of the ePlaya and must adhere to all posted policies regarding commercial listings. Businesses that provide goods or services within Black Rock City may also be required to participate in the Outside Services Program and obtain a Special Recreation Permit from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (see this page for more details).

Content Posted on the Site.

You understand and agree that Burning Man may review and delete any content, messages, photos or profiles (collectively, "Content") that in the sole judgment of Burning Man violate this Agreement, might be offensive or illegal, or might harm, violate the rights of, or threaten the safety of Members.

You may not create or maintain any user accounts that misrepresent yourself, by declaration or implication, as any other real-life person, living or dead.

You are solely responsible for the Content that you publish or display (hereinafter, "post") on the Service, or transmit to other Members.

Illegal and/or unauthorized uses of the ePlaya, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email and unauthorized framing of or linking to the ePlaya will be investigated, and appropriate legal action will be taken, including without limitation, civil, criminal, and injunctive redress.

The following is a partial list of the kind of Content that is illegal or prohibited on the ePlaya. Burning Man reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action in its sole discretion against anyone who violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending post from the Service and terminating the membership of such violators, in connection with all available civil, criminal, and injunctive remedies. You agree not to use the Service to:

harm minors in any way;

harass or advocate harassment of another person;

interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies, or regulations of networks connected to the Service; or

upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available any Content

that constitutes advertising, promotional material that does not adhere to the posted policies regarding commercial listings, contests, sweepstakes, barter, pyramid schemes, "junk mail," "chain letters," or any other form of unsolicited mass mailing or “spamming";

that you know is false, misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory, tortious or libelous;

that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any party, including, but not limited to, providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, and providing pirated music or links to pirated music files;

that contains restricted or password-only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);

that displays pornographic or sexually explicit material of any kind;

that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under 18;

that provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;

that solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users;

that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs designed to interfere with the Service and/or any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; or

that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary, and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements).

Even though all of this is strictly prohibited, there is a chance that you might become exposed to such items and you waive your rights to any damages (from any party) related to such exposure.

You must use the Service in a manner consistent with any and all applicable laws and regulations.

You may not engage in advertising to, or solicitation of, other Members to buy or sell any products or services through the Service outside of designated areas, or in any manner that does not adhere to the posted policies regarding commercial listings. . You may not transmit any chain letters or junk email to other Members. Although Burning Man cannot monitor the conduct of its Members off the ePlaya, it is a violation of these rules to use any information obtained from the Service in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person, or in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any Member without their prior explicit consent. In order to protect our Members from such advertising or solicitation, Burning Man reserves the right to restrict the number of emails that a Member may send to other Members in any 24-hour period to a number that Burning Man deems appropriate in its sole discretion.

You acknowledge and agree that Burning Man may access, preserve, and disclose your account information and Content if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access, preservation, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce the Terms of Service; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; or (e) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Burning Man, ePlaya Members, and the public.

Proprietary Rights in Content Posted on the ePlaya. Burning Man does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service. Each Member owns and retains all proprietary rights to the Content they provide on the ePlaya. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service, you may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or distribute any proprietary information that you do not own or control or have written permission to disclose, unless such information is in the public domain. Additionally, you hereby grant Burning Man a worldwide, irrevocable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform, and publicly display Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Service solely for the purposes of providing the Content submitted on the Service.

Intellectual Property. You may not post, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. Without limiting the foregoing, if you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Service in a way that constitutes infringement, please provide the ePlaya adminstator with the following information:

an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;

a description of the trademark or copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;

a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the ePlaya;

your address, telephone number, and email address;

a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or trademark owner, its agent, or the law;

a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or trademark owner or authorized to act on the copyright or trademark owner's behalf.

Burning Man's ePlaya administrator for notice of claims of infringement can be reached as follows: eplaya@burningman.org

Member Disputes. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Burning Man Members. Black Rock City, LLC. reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Members.

Privacy.

Use of the ePlaya and/or the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy.

Disclaimer of Warranties.

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT:

YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. BURNING MAN EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. BURNING MAN MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (ii) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE; (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE; OR (iv) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM BURNING MAN OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THE AGREEMENT.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT BURNING MAN SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF BURNING MAN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OF OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (ii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; OR (iv) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, BURNING MAN'S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO BURNING MAN FOR THE SERVICE DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP.

Termination. You agree that Burning Man may, without prior notice to you, immediately terminate your account, any associated email address, and access to the Service. Cause for such termination shall include, but not be limited to, (a) breaches or violations of this Agreement or other incorporated agreements or guidelines; (b) requests by law enforcement or other government agencies; (c) a request by you (self-initiated account deletions), (d) discontinuance or material modification to the Service (or any part thereof); (e) unexpected technical or security issues or problems; or (f) extended periods of inactivity. Termination of your account includes (a) removal of access to all offerings within the Service; (b) deletion of your password and all related information, files and content associated with or inside your account (or any part thereof), and (c) barring further use of the Service. Further, you agree that all terminations for cause shall be made in Burning Man's sole discretion and that Burning Man shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your account, any associated email address, or access to the Service.

Disputes. If there is any dispute about or involving the ePlaya and/or the Service, by using the ePlaya, you agree that the dispute will be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You agree to personal jurisdiction by and submit to venue in the state and federal courts of the State of California, City of San Francisco.

Indemnity. You agree to indemnify and hold Burning Man, its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and other partners and employees harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorney's fees and costs, made by any party due to or arising out of your use of the Service in violation of this Agreement and/or arising from a breach of this Agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which says, "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."

No Agency. There is no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchisor-franchisee relationship between Burning Man and any user of the Service.

Other. This Agreement, accepted upon your use of the ePlaya and further affirmed by becoming a Member of the Service, contains the entire agreement between you and Burning Man regarding the use of the ePlaya and/or the Service. The failure of Burning Man to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Service shall not constitute a subsequent or prospective waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid, the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect. The section titles in these Terms of Service are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.